


Lion Awakened by Rain

by tokii



Series: 壊れた方 [26]
Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-31 01:15:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21437767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tokii/pseuds/tokii
Summary: After losing contact with his team, Lance finally visits a planet that reminds him of home.Tag: Dark Purple (Moderate)
Series: 壊れた方 [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1542805





	Lion Awakened by Rain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sophisthoe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophisthoe/gifts).

Lion Awakened by Rain

Warmth splashes onto his helmet, once then twice, the rivulets running lazily down the cracked glass before catching on the lip of his shattered visor. The bulging droplets suspend there, filling slowly as the crooked runnels feed into them. The globules swell, sagging beneath the jagged edges until they pop, falling towards his face. The warmth drips onto his bloodied nose and splashes against his freckled cheeks. The dripping comes quicker now, softly, the pattering of rain against still-moving water filling his ears. Lance’s lip twitches into a smile at the sensation and his eyelashes flutter at the wetness falling to his brow. He opens his mouth and breathes in the sweet scent of damp air, the warm taste filling his lungs. The falling mist washes over his chest, spilling through the splintered openings in his armor, his body gently rocked by the rolling lake beneath him. And he’s reminded of home – of the setting sun catching on the Caribbean, the waves crashing purple and orange onto the shore. The summer rains. Splashing through puddles with his niece and nephew on warm afternoons. He sees it all, for just a moment. Water below him, water above him – a brilliant blue. A drop of rain falls to his cracked lips, the metallic tang rolling across his tongue reminding him that this isn’t earth.

Through his visor, past the blur of droplets trickling above and the smatterings of blood underneath, Lance trains his eyes on the burgeoning vapors beginning to amass in the sky. The furious clouds bloom with sulfur, plumes of yellow stretching out across the darkening atmosphere, casting the planet beneath an entirely golden hue. The bright waters lap quicker now, pushing against him steadily in rhythm with the tumultuous, ethereal sky. It seems right, somehow, that this is where he’d be… in the end.

He runs his hand through the streamlet of his blood sitting atop the yellowed water, sloppily tracing the outline of a flower. The rippling water glows brightly through the smudges of red, distorting the image – a gnarled rose left fractured against a sea vibrant as daffodils. He pulls his fingers away, sticky and dripping, the scattered pooling of blood still floating atop the unmarred surface of the golden water. Lance rolls his head toward Red, mounds of rainwater sent running across the width of his fractured helmet. She’s laying upon the yellow lake, her jaw hanging awkwardly, the smearing of his blood leading out from her mouth. Her eyes are dark. Red’s fall wasn’t slowed by the water when Lance crash-landed her on the planet. He hadn’t accounted for “space physics.” Pidge had mentioned planets like these, where gravity has an odd effect on the atmosphere and dense gasses behave as liquids. In this case, it was some combination of sulfur and mercury, forming a gaseous liquid buoyant enough to support a Voltron lion. Hurtling through space, Lance couldn’t have known that this planet’s fluid would be denser than most. Then again, that’s the only reason why he’s still afloat. He flicks at the puddle of blood, droplets sent rolling atop the glass-like water, radiating from him in little rills. He and Red wouldn’t have made it much further anyways.

It would be his luck, landing on an entire planet of water, completely surrounded by reminders of home. And yet, it was all just a bit off in color. It was just a bit different – in the way the rain fell, the taste of it, its smell. It was the way his body floated atop the golden water, touched by it, and yet not submerged in its warmth. It was so close to being like home, to earth. And yet he was still so far away. Away from his family, whom he’d never meant to leave in the first place. And after spending years of his life fighting for the universe beside his friends, he finally found a new family, one that needed him. And they needed him now. Lance’s eyes flutter closed, and he exhales the warm, damp air he held in his lungs. He feels his strength slowly leaching out onto the sea of daffodil glass. Lance lost contact with the team after Haggar hit Red with a beam of dark energy. The last thing he heard was Keith’s voice yelling for him to stay awake. It was his luck, landing in the one place most familiar to him, most similar to home… alone.

The falling rain continues to tap against his broken helmet, the warmth softly dripping to his face before running down his aching neck. The planet is a gentle chorus, a subtle thrum of water hitting rolling sea, a rumbling of vapors in the glowing sky – a sound befitting the tune his mamá had made for him and his hermana. He begins humming to the rhythm of the rain splashing against the lake water around him. And slowly, the words start to come. Lance fills the pauses of the falling rain with a hoarse voice, softly singing the lullaby he knows by heart, “Mi niño pequeño, nacido junto al mar. Ojos de azul, no llores. El león despertado por la lluvia te canta …

… My little boy, born by the sea. With eyes of blue, do not cry. The lion awakened by the rain sings to you. He runs along the ocean, his love stretching every sea. As long as the rain falls, the lion awakened will sing to you, my love. My little boy, born by the sea…

… mi amor. Mi niño pequeño, nacido junto al mar.”

Lance’s voice cracks on the last note, and he coughs a soft laugh, a wide grin wrinkling his young face. “The lion… awakened by rain,” he breathes, a tear running down his splotched cheek. He whispers up at the darkening, yellow sky, “Gracias por dejarlo llover…

… Thank you for letting it rain, one, last time.”

••

Black crashes into the yellow lake, sliding atop the rippling surface before collapsing a few hundred yards behind Red. A despairing scream emerges from the wreckage – Lance’s name. But the cry is drowned beneath the falling of rainwater across the glowing field. “Lance!!” Keith’s voice breaks, yelling as he stumbles through the smoke erupting from Black’s mouth. He retches and falls to the surface of the golden water on his hands and knees, left hacking blood and soot onto the glass. Black spit hangs in strings from his chin as Keith pushes himself to his feet, whirling around, his eyes flitting frantically across the vibrant expanse of water. “Lance, where are you!??” he rasps, hawking phlegm into his elbow, the light rainfall matting his bloodied hair to his neck. He coughs out bits of Lance’s name, pivoting around to search for signs of life, until he sees the blurred outline of Red ahead. He takes off running.

Keith sprints across the daffodil lake, the surface depressing just slightly beneath his every footfall. His screams fall silent over the water, the pattering of rain submerging his cries beneath the heavy thrumming. “Answer me, Lance!” he croaks, Red’s form looming up ahead of him in the yellow haze. She’s lying still against the flickering lake. He turns to look at her as he sprints past, eyes widening, “Lance!! Where are you!?” A smearing of blood extends from Red’s mouth. Keith runs across the quiet sea, muffled voice breaking, following the streaking line of red. There’s a figure in blue sprawled at the end of the blood trail.

Keith throws himself down at Lance’s side, taking him into his arms as blood splashes onto his knees. “Lance, I’m here,” Keith whispers, wrapping his hand beneath Lance’s head and pulling his torso up onto his lap. “Lance, it’s Keith,” his voice quivers, grabbing gently at Lance’s side, other hand bobbing Lance’s neck. The rain hums against the daffodil water around them, scattering the streamlets of blood leaking from Lance’s side. Keith squeezes his eyes shut and presses his face to Lance’s helmet until their noses touch, his breath quick. “I’m here, Lance. I’m here,” he splutters, voice breaking, holding Lance’s limp body closer to his chest with trembling hands. Lance’s nose twitches, and Keith chokes back a gasp, turning his ear to Lance’s shattered helmet. He strains to listen to Lance’s breathing, and hears the shallow clicking in Lance’s throat despite the pattering of falling rain.

Lance gurgles slightly, “Llovió…

… It rained – but now, it’s perfect…

… Pero ahora es perfecto,” he murmurs.

“Wh- what?” Keith chokes, pulling his face back, sucking in a breath. His reddened eyes widen as he studies Lance’s face, “What did you say?”

Lance smiles softly, realizing he’s no longer talking to the yellow sky that brought him the rain. “I-I said… don’t worry, R-red,” his voice scratches, “just con-concentrate on keeping me s-safe.”

Keith stifles a sob with a hollow laugh, and pulls Lance against his chest, tucking his face into Lance’s soaked collar. “I have you, Blue,” Keith whispers.

Lance gazes up at the darkening sky, the acrid drops of rainwater splashing against his forehead. _It still is perfect_, Lance thinks to himself, as his vision starts to drift out across the daffodil waters smeared with his blood, until the bright glass fades to black.


End file.
